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Remembering Bob Marley

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FRANCES: So when did you first go to Europe?

FULLY: Toposzukie.

TONY: Soul Syndicate never toured Europe as Soul Syndicate yet. We always went as someone's backup band.

FULLY: Check this out Tony: When Topozuckie was a little boy, he used to carry dinner for my father. When he grew up, he got involved in the politics and became an important person. A very nice fellow. And he always remembered us.

FRANCES: So when did you go to Europe?

FULLY: Topozuckie, the first time was with Topozuckie. Topozuckie had a hit song named Oh, Lord. It was a big hit in Jamaica. He wanted to do a tour in Europe but he didn't have any players. He asked me and Max Edwards to go. We weren't doing anything at the time, and he offered us some nice money, so we said, “Allright.” So that's how I left and went to Europe. I had a whole ton-load of adventures. The car turned over in a snow storm. That was when I met Sting. And the Sex Pistols. There was so much excitement then during that time when we were in England. It was a good experience for me. And Tapozukie treated me with a lot of respect. Max Edwards played drums on that tour.

FRANCES: So where is Max Edwards today?

FULLY: After we recorded Max's album, Rocker's Arena, Max went back to England. I believe he's still there. In my opinion, he's one of the greatest drummers who ever lived.

TONY: Yeah, mon, a hell of a drummer.

FRANCES: So, how did Soul Syndicate mash up?

FULLY: Soul Syndicate didn't mash up. But everybody went off to play with different groups when they got offers. Chinna left to go do some work with Inner Circle. Chinna was always in demand because he became one on Jamaica's best reggae guitar players. He left to go on tour with Bob Marley, too. The same thing happened to the rest of us -- we each became in so much demand that we were all going off in different directions to play with different groups that would call each of us. They start calling me, start calling Santa, start calling Tony and then the band become like a tree root.

TONY: Yeah, start branch out in different directions.

FULLY: And the beauty about Soul Syndicate is that it becomes one of the bands that individual people have their own identity and started to get their own fame and name. And that rarely happens with a band that every player becomes very popular out there. Like Keith Sterling, Chinna, myself, Tony, Santa.

FRANCES: So Keith went off to play with --

TONY and FULLY: Peter Tosh.

TONY: And Santa went off to play with Jimmy Cliff.

FRANCES: And Tony went off to play with --

TONY: Mighty Diamonds

FULLY: Tony used to play with Jimmy Cliff too. And I was playing with other people too. I went on the road with Big Youth. I went to England with Big Youth. When the Soul Syndicate backed up Big Youth, he would call us the Ark Angles. He loved that name. So we started doing a lot of recording for him as the Ark Angles. He had a little record store and me and Tony used to be down there hanging out with Big Youth. To be honest with you, Big Youth is a very nice person -- a nice person to be around. But he's a guy you also don't want to get upset.

FRANCES: I remember Sunplash, 1982 in Montego Bay in Jamaica. You all played with him on that show. I've seen it released as an album.

FULLY (to Frances and Vickie): Isn't that when we met?

FRANCES: I met you on May 3, at Orange Coast College. That's when I met Tony and Vickie too. You were playing with Jack Miller that day. Tanya was there that day too.

FULLY: Eighteen years. Boy time flies. For 2 years straight we got "Best Recording Band in Jamaica". We got a cup, but I don't remember where it is. One of the sad things about the music is that many of the original creators or writers of certain songs remain in the shadows. I think we are some of those people. One of Sly and Robbie's biggest hits, Taxi Rhythm was a song that we did originally for Blaka Mawelly. So the world have it that Robbie and Sly made it, but that wasn't so. We made that music originally, but they made it a big hit. The other thing too with Joe Higgs -- Stepping Razor -- the world thinks that's a Peter Tosh song. But it was really a Joe Higgs song.

TONY: It come like Bob Marley and Buffalo Soldier. He didn't write it, you know.

FRANCES: How did the music evolve?

FULLY and TONY: From Mento, it was mento business first.

FULLY: Back in the early days, all the small islands used to play the same kind of music -- mento. There were three guys, one on a rhythm box, one on banjo, and one on guitar.

TONY: They used to be at the airport when the tourists come in. In their straw hats and pretty shirts.

FULLY: That's where the music start from. There was also calypso and socka. But the islands were playing the same kind of music because it was really the same people on the islands. The slaves that were brought over from Africa were put on all the small islands and they brought their music with them -- the drums and the rhythms and the songs to cheer them up and keep them going. So anywhere you go, you hear the same thing.

VICKIE: So when did things start to change?

TONY: During the 60's.

FULLY: You have some guys, Carl Masters and some older guys who start play something new. They called it Ska, so they called themselves the Skatalites. So the mento thing started to change.

TONY: But you have some guys that say, "It's too fast." So they slowed it down and it became rocksteady.

FULLY: And then there was a drummer who made a big difference in the direction of the music, but I can't remember his name right now. But a guitar player, Lynn Tate who came over from Trinidad turned the whole thing around. He became the king of rocksteady. The reggae grew out of this and is almost the same thing. Just slightly different tempos and lyrics.

TONY: So music in Jamaica changed.

FULLY: But the other islands didn't change. Jamaica became the island of reggae but it still has some of the top calypso and socka bands in the world. Trinidad has the king of calypso, Mighty Sparrow.

TONY: Like Jamaica has the king of reggae, Bob Marley, Trinidad has Sparrow, the king of calypso.

((END OF TAPE))

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Remembering Bob Marley